I have a special attachment to dot racing because the CEO of my company invented it as an A's promotion when he was the editor of the SF Examiner years ago. He was kind enough to recently give me his last yellow plastic dot-racing watch from back in the day.

Dot racing is the only non baseball related attraction that I look forward to seeing. Like kevink said, it was invented in Oakland and copied by everyone else. I would rather see a hundred dot races rather than stand in line for four hours with folks whose lone purpose for going to the game is to see fireworks or get a plastic doll. Some of the routines around the Colli have gotten a bit tired for me at least. It's time to change the music a little durring moments of drama and pregame entertainment. I get really nostalgic for the days where the sounds of the game were all that were heard. It could be worse. I go to a few Marlin games every year and while attendance is up this year, (of course) I have walked into Pro Player many times where crowds were marginally better than a high school football game. (Texas excluded) The worst part of it is that Pro Player has the loudest sound system of all the stadiums that I have been to. This is for the Dolphins of course, but the sound is deafening in an empty football stadium where Baseball is being played. The Marlins also have cheerleaders, (for baseball?) They also have just about every between inning loud obnoxious game and advertisement that is out there. The place also smells like cologne. I'm not kidding.

rtd, try going to Petco Park. It's like going to a rock concert. You can't have a conversation with the person next to you between innings! But it still sounds like a better overall experience than Pro Player.

A's to San Jose?: If the Montreal Expos are moved to either northern Virginia or Washington, D.C., it will not be a precedent for overturning the Giants' territorial rights in San Jose. When the Peter Magowan group bought the Giants in 1992, one of the conditions of the deal was that no other major- league team could locate in San Francisco, San Mateo or Santa Clara counties. That can't be changed by an owners vote.

Dickey should be telling his friends in the skybox 24 of the coli to stop saying there is a connection to Baltimore's territorial rights and the relocation to San Jose.